That said, this is pretty dismaying. I've been using Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo for years. Their standalone and non-subscription based apps are perfect for my usecase. Compared to Adobe, they are a no-brainer. But, I don't think Canva would leave them be as is. Either next versions will be a subscription or a rug pull is coming for the existing version.
And here's few Affinity forum threads about the topic:
- https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201405-que...
- https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201403-can...
- Affinity team (if they are pressured to go beyond professional designers or change to subscription, go to cloud, web etc.)
- Canva. Professional/enterprise is a very different ball game than the consumer market that they were focussing on. Ex. their mobile app for consumer itself is kind of broken, whereas mobile first experience is very important for the demography that they are targeting.
Plus Canva doesn’t really have the concept of “local files” so they’re stuck until they evolve to include every feature of Google Drive, at minimum, including local file sync. Canva ignoring traditional apps is like Chrome pretending the OS doesn’t exist and then building ChromeOS. Some concepts are necessary complexity, particularly for power users. Canva is a bit too simple still, and thus frustrating.
> We know this model has been a key part of the Affinity offering and we are committed to continue to offer perpetual licenses in the future. If we do offer a subscription, it will only ever be as an option alongside the perpetual model, for those who prefer it.
[1]: https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/affinity-canva-pledge/
https://cdm.link/2021/11/ableton-reportedly-refused-investme...